Sheriff’s building tour on county commission agenda

ADRIAN — A tour featuring peeling paint, cracked windows and crumbling plaster in Lenawee County Sheriff’s Department offices is on the agenda for county commissioners Monday morning.

The commission’s physical resources committee is to take a look at problems Sheriff Jack Welsh complained about last fall before $260,000 was allocated toward solving the building problem as part of a $2 million county bond issue.

Commissioners are beginning to sort through options for repairing or replacing the building that has been home to the sheriff’s department for about 60 years.

There are no quick and easy choices, said physical resour­ces chairman Cletus Smith, R-Madison Twp.

Options include constructing a new building, moving to another building and renovating the current offices. The commission also has to decide how much to spend on interim repairs while a long-range solution is worked out.

“It’s not going to be as easy as everyone seems to think,” Smith said.

“I’ll listen to what the public has to say and move forward,” he said, while protecting taxpayers’ money in the process.

Welsh said he welcomes the attention and prospect of improving conditions for his staff.

“Who knows what’s in the paint that’s falling on the radiators,” he said. Crumbling plaster is falling on desks, he said, windows in the front lobby are cracked, and concrete outside is badly pitted.

“We need to do something with some of these issues if we’re going to be here for three years,” he said. “It’s an issue that’s been tabled for a long time.”

New sheriff’s department offices were part of bond proposals for a new jail and law enforcement center that voters rejected in 1998 and 2000.

Replacing the sheriff’s offices was put on the back burner when commissioners decided in 2004 to scale down the project to a standalone jail the county could finance without a tax increase.

Discussion of a new sheriff’s building has sparked a response, he said.

“We have had all kinds of offers from people wanting to sell us something,” Welsh said.

When all the pros and cons are weighed, he said, he believes the scales will tip in favor of constructing a new facility rather than moving to an existing building.

“I’m not sure I want to buy a building if we need a new one,” said Smith. “We do need to think real hard about a new office building for the sheriff’s department.”